Fodor's may use your email address to send you relevant information on site updates, account changes, and offers. For more information about your privacy and protection, please review our full Privacy Policy.

Weekends in Europe - Solo in Prague - New friends and lots of beer in the prettiest city!

******************************************************************************************************
A bit about me: I am 22, female and moved to London about 1.5 years ago. I love 2 things very dearly: travelling and food. London is perfect for both

I try to escape my hectic work life (12-15 hours per weekday) once a month for a short weekend trip, typically Saturday morning to Sunday night. Easyjet is my dream come true in a sense. This series of trip reports will be talking about these weekends, before they become a blur inside my head. Keep in mind that they will sound very rushed, but well. Thats how weekend trips need to be!

God bless bank holidays in London. Monday (6th May 2013) was one, and I was off to Prague to celebrate all by myself

Day 1:

With a connecting flight via Frankfurt, I arrived at Prague at 2 pm. I was able to get out of the airport fairly quickly (no immigration queues, and checked in baggage!) Took Bus 119 to Dejvická (the last stop) and metro line A to Malostranská for 48 CZK (£1.5). I was staying at the Charles Bridge Economic Hostel - which was the building right next to Charles Bridge (on the West)

This is by far the best hostel I have ever stayed at - lovely location, amazing spacious rooms (very pretty too), huge and clean bathrooms, and unbelievably helpful staff who really took out time to explain different ways to spend my time. They were also a "tourist information centre" - the status comes with a lot of discousnts, and also a public transport ticket machine in the common room! All for 800 CZK for two nights!!

I headed for a 3 pm free walking tour by Prague Extravanganza - its a 3 hour tour which covers old town and jewish ghetto in 1.5 hours, and 1.5 hours for the castle, with a break at Charles Bridge in the middle. Its always good to orient yourselves to a place with a free tour before you explore in detail on your own. The guide was a nice czech man, but the tour was so-so. The tidbits of history he told us were good to know. We saw the astronomical clock, St James church (which was really beautiful ), and then walked to the Jewish quarter. We saw the spanish, pinkas and old new syngagoues from outside only. I left the group after this, and headed to my hostel to get ready for the evening.
I had tickets at the State Opera for "Aida" - the opera was nice, but seemed to cater a lot to tourists who never watch the Opera back home (I actually visit ROH in London quite often, and was quite shocked by people walking in late after breaks, and the incessant coughing during the performance)
It had rained while we were inside, and the evening was quite chilly so i headed straight back towards the hostel and decided to eat at Lokal - a restaurant recommended by the hostel that seemed to be extremely popular with locals who all seemed to know each other. Unfortunately dinner time was over, so I stuck to a sausage and some beer (my first since arriving). Eating alone is the worst part about travelling alone - I was about to get up after getting done when a fellow solo-traveller asked if I would give him company. Why not make someone elses experience nicer He owns a company that works on making companies more eco-friendly, and is from london too. We ended up drinking a few beers together and realised that the entire restauarnt was deserted (chairs up on table et all) by the time we left. Sweet of the staff to not shoo us away! The began a chain of new and interesting people I would be meeting during this trip "home" was a hop skip and jump away, and I crashed the moment I got to my bed

Day 2:
The alarm woke me up at 7:30 am (after several snoozes). Surprisingly, the girl in the bed next to mine was up too (others were dead to the world). After chatting while we both got dressed, we realised that both our plans were to climb Petrin hill while it was still quiet. We headed out together, and skipped the funicular for a lovely, quiet and scenic walk/hike up the hill. Apart from a few stretches which were a bit slushy because of last nights rain, we reached with ease in about 30-45 minutes. The views on the way, along with the blooming cherry blossoms, lack of any crowds except occasional joggers were worth skipping the easy and also too-short way up!

Unfortunately, the "eiffel" tower, and all other attractions would only open at 10 am, and it was only 9. but the walk was so worth it that we didnt mind!

Since Amy and I got along so well, we decided to continue the day together. Its so nice to meet someone from halfway across the world (Taiwanese, brought up in Canada) who shares almost exactly the same ideas in life as you

Next up- we walked to the Dancing house (underwhelming, but then maybe i cant appreciate some things)before brunch at Cafe Louvre. The food was DELICIOUS, especially the raspberry pancakes

We then headed inside the Spanish Synagogue - which should definitely not be missed at all. It was overwhlemingly beautiful, and i really regret not being allowed to take photos.

Pinkas synagogue was just as important - but it brought up completely different emotions. No photograph could ever do justice to the names on the walls, I almost didnt go inside because I didnt think it would be that earth-shattering, but thats exactly what it proved to be. Compared to that, the Jewish cemetry was so-so. Im surprised it is given more importance by tour guides.

We walked along the river to Kafka museum, since we really wanted to see the statue of the two pissing men childish but fun! we tried to text the number to get them to write our message with their, well, pee. But alas, it was probably too old for that now..

Our walk up towards the castle was interesting, stopping inside off-beat souvenir shops and the gingerbread museum! We finally reached the top, and it did not disappoint. A few hours well spent inside the cathedral, golden lane (a bit touristy for my tastes) and St. Georges basilica. Amy had already seen Loreto so I skipped it.

Headed back down towards our hostel, and this time i got to eat the main courses at Lokal! We had Goulash (finally) and fried cheese. BOth were yummy, and washed down with large beers. We finished with biscuits and cream. my arteries are dying even thinking about the meal ..

Amy now had to head to the airport to catch her flight!

I rested in the hostel for an hour, before heading out for the evening! More to follow soon.

I'm enjoying your report too. Reminds me of my time in Prague a couple of years ago. It really is a great city that offers so much for the tourist and traveller to see and do (and photograph). Looking forward to reading more

lovely trip report, glad you managed to met up with folk and enjoy their company.
I love cafe Louvre and usually meet friends there when I am in the city,their Cowboy Braekfast is quite superb.
Goulash and fried cheese,2 of the staples of the Czech diet, and both delicious.
Looking forward to the rest of your report.

For Traveler of the road, next week is the start of the Czech Beer Festival (an annual event for me)I will be arriving on the 23rd May for the week.
try a visit or two there,in the evenings there is a Rockfest taking part ,so an entry fee of 90kc, a free beer and music is not a bad way to spend an evening ,I am sure you will meet up with folk there.http://www.ceskypivnifestival.cz/en/czech/prague-2013/

I was really keen on checking out a Jazz club while in Prague, and had been recommended Reduta by a lot of people. However, the feeling that I got was that it was probably catering only to "sophisticated" tourists, and that was not what I wanted. After a lot of research, I decided on U Malehu Glena, or "Little Glen". They have jam sessions every sunday, which attracted me since I was sure most places wouldnt have great entertainment on a sunday.

Before the club, I headed out to see "Aspect in Alice", a performanec at the Black Light Theatre. It is apparently very unique to Prague (Im not so sure about that!), and was entertaining (the second half was a bit "meh", but overall a very interesting experience and great special effects )

While at the theatre, I ended up chatting with a retired Australian couple sitting next to me. When i told them where i was headed after, they were happy to join me, as the husband is learning how to play the sax! The jam session was due to start at 9:30 pm, and we arrived early to reserve a table. The place is located in the basement of a restauarant, and is large enough for maybe 15-20 people. We roamed around till about 9:15 pm and headed back in time to see the place filling up. The atmosphere was great, and once the music began, we were delighted! The band was fantastic, and it looked like it "try outs for drummers" night, as they kept changing, and were all better than the last!

We stayed till about 11:30, when they had to take the tram home. I walked along Charles Bridge (felt like walking across it with them, even though my place was on the same side as Little Glen.

Charles Bridge at night should not be missed. Quiet, beautiful and romantic (sigh. being alone can be a pain sometimes)

One of the girls in my dorm had mentioned that a park close by had peacocks! I headed out at about 8:30 am to find out, and entered Vojanovy Park. It is lined with cherry blossoms and was completely quiet and empty at such early hours.. I saw one woman walking her baby in a stroller, and was glad to enjoy the beauty all by myself I had all but given up on the peacocks, when I saw steps right at the end of the park. On climbign to the top, I saw 4-5 peacocks spread out acropss a garden, each one competing with the other on how beautiful its feathers are! Best way to wake up

I then walked to Old Town Square just in time to see the "show" at the atronomical clock at 10 am Next up was the House of Black Madonna - a cubist building near the town square. It houses Cafe Orient, which is great for breakfast

I then rushed back to the clock tower, since you can climb it from 11 am onwards. I was the *first* person up, and had the entire tower to myself for 5 minutes The view were beauitful, and definitely worth 100 CZK.

Souvenir shopping is a necessary evil, and i spent some time picking out a painting of charles bridge from a small street market close by. I then headed towards New Town, since i wanted to see Wenceslas square, and the Jubilee synagogue (i maintain that the spanish one is much nicer)

Lunch was at a microbrewery cum restaurant: U Medvídků. It had started to rain by then, so i was happy to be sitting inside, having some excellent unpasteurized beer and beef roast

I then started to wander towards the old town, getting completely lost and enjoying that quite a bit. Also bought two small bells, the work is called "fajans majolica".